How Public Art Evolves Public Space | Wednesday 2 October

A free panel discussion on the transformative potential of public art

Powerful objects, ideas or installations can transform the ways we use and view common spaces. As KWAG supports the City of Kitchener in its efforts to acquire an outdoor sculpture by Canadian artist Kim Adams, a trio of local artists join Adams for a panel discussion about their experiences bringing creative acts to shared spaces.

Kim Adams is one of Canada’s leading contemporary sculptors, having produced a highly original body of work in sculpture and installation since the late 1970s. Adams was born in Edmonton in 1951, graduated with a BFA from the University of Victoria in 1979, and moved to Toronto in the early 1980s. He has since participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad, with notable participation in the Skulptur Projekt 1997 in Munster, Germany; Sydney Biennale of 2002; In Site, 1997, San Diego; Insiders at the Musée d’art contemporain in Bordeaux, France; and El Geni de Les Coses at the Office for Artistic Diffusion (ODA) in Barcelona. Adams is the subject of numerous books and catalogues, and his work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Art Gallery of Windsor, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Musee d’art contemporain, Montreal; and the Art Gallery of Hamilton among many others.

Ernest Daetwyler is a sculptor and visual artist whose multidisciplinary projects, exhibitions and public interventions appear across Canada and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Presence Suisse, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) 2010 Exhibition of the Year Award, the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, N.Y. Daetwyler is also a founding member and former artistic/executive director of the Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA)and has served on its Board of Directors in numerous functions for more than fourteen years. Locals will recognize two of his works in downtown Kitchener: The Luggage Project in Victoria Park and Past/Present/Future for the Region of Waterloo at the former County Court House building.

Gordon Hatt has acted as Executive Director of CAFKA since 2008. He arrived after working as curator of Zone A for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in 2008. He was previously director/curator at Rodman Hall Arts Centre in St. Catharines from 2004 to 2007, and worked in a variety of capacities at Cambridge Galleries from 1988 to 2004, the last seven of those years as curator of temporary exhibitions. At Cambridge, he developed a programming philosophy of audience development through the presentation of advanced contemporary art, a philosophy he brings to CAFKA. Hatt has been active in the development and the promotion of Canadian artists for over thirty years by writing numerous articles, essays and interviews.

Laura McBride has been a Kitchener-based artist for more than a decade. Her experience as a visual artist, photographer and event planner has evolved into her role as a local placemaker, storyteller and community advocate with a focus on touchable art. McBride has used her capacity as a multimedia artist and organizer to create individual initiatives like Central Fairy Doors and the Secrets Spaces and Familiar Places photo series, as well as collaborative works like the Hohner Avenue Porch Party, the Weber Park piano and The Inconvenience Store – an art gallery on the exterior of an abandoned property.